Pete’s Training Blackboard
Bringing you the plays that pay – to improve your cruise business
THIS WEEK: Cruise Personaliser – How to use it to your advantage
There are two critical factors to keep front of mind when selling a cruise experience. Firstly all marketing research
points to the fact that sales are based on your client feeling an emotional need for the product, which can be tricky
with a cruise as secondly, you are selling a non-tangible product; they can’t touch it, feel it, or try it on… there is no
instant gratification for your client as they cannot walk out of your office with a ship in their bag. But there IS a way
to assist you in getting an advantage, and that is the use of the Cruise Personaliser…and promoting it BEFORE you
have sold the cruise!
Click here to read more…
A good cruise agent will use the two main features of a cruise holiday in their sales dialogue to create emotional
desire from a client;
1. The cruise ship itself and the experience matching the needs/motives of the client, as well as
2. The multitude of destinations that the client will have the opportunity to explore.
This alone in a sales dialogue, when communicated well, completes the sale in most cases. But there are times when
the client is still on the cusp of committing, so how do we convert them? One way is to observe consumer research
that indicates the strong role instant gratification has in sales conversions.
Using the Cruise Personaliser is a great way to do this. Here is an example;
“I understand Mr Smith that this holiday fits your needs perfectly, so I am going to hold these cabins for you.
As far as a deposit goes, it is a $XX payment, and the balance can be completed before XYZ. Now the great
news is that once you pay your deposit, you own your holiday straight away!” (Hand them a Cruise
Personaliser guide which I will describe below).
“Once your payment is received by the cruise line, you will get your booking codes and can go online and
have the best time planning your holiday – it is a lot of fun. You have the opportunity to explore all the great
tours on offer, or plan an intimate evening onboard in one of their great alternative restaurants. You can
scroll through all the pre-packaged options like drinks onboard…it’s all yours to play with and design the
perfect time, and learn about everything on offer for your specific cruise as well. This guide will help you, and
obviously I am always here to assist you in whatever you need or questions you have as well.”
At that moment there is an understanding from the client that as soon as a financial commitment is made, there is
the instant gratification of owning their booking and being involved in the process…rather than ‘oh, now I have to
wait 6 months to enjoy it’. It also takes the pressure off you to having to do their Cruise Personaliser. But that is not
a cop-out because you WILL have to do some of the following preparation.
Cruise Personaliser Guide – If you want a consistent approach to your services then I would recommend spending
some time preparing a Cruise Personaliser Guide for all cruise lines. Sounds like a lot of work, but as they all require
the same type of information; your first template can be replicated quite easily for all the brands with a few
adjustments and logo inputs (just make the first template the most detailed one so you can cull information for
different cruise lines rather than adding information all the time to a basic template you firstly created).
This document alone gives the client something more than a brochure of their cruise line…this is specific for THEIR
cruise. It is another form of instant gratification and it gives ownership to the client that they now have for their
purchase.
Finally, ALWAYS remember; no matter how much knowledge you have, how good your verbal skills are, or how well
you follow sales procedures, overall your ENTHUSIASM will be critical to get them involved – and using this tool is a
great way to generate that personal excitement for them.